Ms. Ford is Councillor Doug Ford’s daughter. Last year, she was captain of Toronto’s Lingerie Football Team, Toronto Triumph.

Ms. Ford, the mayor and the councillor did not respond to a request for an interview.

She apologized for her comment in a followup tweet Thursday afternoon.

“I didn’t mean to cause such an alarm and I apologize if I did. I just want women to be safe,” she wrote.

In a statement to Sun Media, she said: “What I meant to say was that women should take measures to protect themselves and be very careful not to place themselves or allow themselves to be placed in vulnerable positions that may compromise their safety.”

Despite deleting the original tweet, the damage was already done, as Twitter users accused Ms. Ford of victim-blaming. Many pointed out that mace is a prohibited weapon, and several people are calling attention to the way Ms. Ford herself dressed as a former Lingerie Football player.

Some time after noon on Thursday, Ms. Ford locked her Twitter account making her tweets private and visible only to people she approves.

Jokes at her expense continued. A Toronto playwright and arts journalist, Christine Estima, said she would go into hiding as well if she told rape victims they dressed like whores.

looks like @kristaford made her twitter account private.Well if i told rape victims they dressed like whores, i'd go into hiding as well.

The controversy and reaction is similar to a January 2011 incident, in which Toronto Police Constable Michael Sanguinetti had to apologize for saying that women should “avoid dressing like sluts” if they don’t want to be victims. His comments sparked “SlutWalks” across the world – rallies where women, often scantily clad, gather to denounce victim blaming, and to raise awareness that women can get raped no matter what they wear and that all responsibility should rest with the attacker.

Alice Moran of Toronto wrote an open letter on Facebookto Krista Ford. Ms. Moran said she was sexually assaulted while wearing a knee-length polka dot dress – something she has worn for an Easter celebration at her grandparents’ place.

Ms. Moran refrained from criticizing the mayor’s niece for playing football in lingerie saying she would never “slut-shame another woman,” but she advised Ms. Ford of her right to personal security under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom.

“You’re a woman and you should know that your body is yours and yours alone. No matter how you dress it, you have a right – an actual Charter of Rights and Freedom right – to not be sexually assaulted. You are entitled to life, liberty and the security of person,” Ms. Moran wrote in her letter which has been shared by about 300 people in less than two hours.

The Ford family is hardly new to controversial gaffes. The mayor himself has been the subject of intense public scrutiny in recent weeks after a picture of him reading while driving began circulating on Twitter. Mr. Ford admitted nonchalantly that it was probably him reading while driving because he’s a busy man, but he refuses to hire a driver with taxpayers’ money.

The mayor will also be going to court next week to face allegations that he participated in a city council vote while being in a conflict of interest. If it is determined that he breached the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, he could lose his job.

Ms. Ford quit the Toronto Triumph football team last October along with 19 other team members. Her departure was reportedly because of ill-fitting safety equipment and complaints about the coaching.